Business news in brief

Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, said it agreed to purchase and operate existing equipment to supply industrial gases for Chinese steel manufacturer Xingtai Iron & Steel Corp. Ltd. In addition to acquiring four air separation units in the deal, Air Products will build a fifth unit for the specialty steel company in Hebei province, China. Air Products did not disclose the value of the deal. Xingtai Steel is expanding its steelmaking capacity and will be supplied more than 1,700 tons per day of oxygen under the long-term agreement, Air Products said. The deal is pending Chinese government approval, which is expected in 2009. The new air separation unit is expected to be on-stream in March 2011. Air Products had fiscal 2008 revenues of $10.4 billion, operations in more than 40 countries, and 21,000 employees around the globe. - Reid Kanaley

Sunoco Inc.'s Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries are emitting hydrogen cyanide at levels that exceed reportable limits, though the discharges pose no public-health threat, according to a company spokesman. Cyanide emissions from the company's fluid catalytic crackers are "far below levels that might adversely impact health, both in the short term and in the long term," Thomas Golembeski, a company spokesman, said in a telephone interview. - Bloomberg News

Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P., Philadelphia, said it had completed the acquisition of Excel Pipeline L.L.C., the owner of the 52-mile pipeline that delivers crude oil to Gary-Williams Energy Corp. refinery in Wynnewood, Okla. Gary-Williams entered into a 20-year throughput agreement to use the pipeline's capacity. The price was not disclosed, but Sunoco Logistics said the transaction was expected to be immediately accretive. Sunoco Logistics is 40 percent owned by oil refiner Sunoco Inc. It operates 3,800 miles of crude oil pipelines and 2,200 miles of refined-product pipelines. - Andrew Maykuth

General Motors Co. said Canada's Magna International Inc. and Russian lender Sberbank would take a majority stake in its European unit Adam Opel GmbH. GM said it would keep a minority stake and continue to develop vehicles in partnership with Opel. It said key issues - including agreement from labor unions to cost reductions and a financing package from the German government - would have to be completed, but it expected the deal to close in the "next few months." Also, GM said new-car buyers would be able to return their vehicles within two months of purchase for a full refund, part of a new marketing campaign for the automaker. The effort will begin next week. - AP

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the government has approved $1.22 billion in reimbursements to car dealers for sales under the Cash for Clunkers program. LaHood said the government is on track to pay eligible dealers by a Sept. 30 deadline. He also said the department's freight transportation index rose 1.6 percent in July - the first rise since February. He said that was a sign the economy is starting to bounce back from the recession. - AP

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, above, said the government was moving to withdraw some of its support for financial markets but cautioned that the recovery will have "more than the usual ups and downs." He told the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is monitoring the rescue of the banking system, that the federal government "must begin winding down some of the extraordinary support we put in place." He said the effort had moved from "crisis response" after the collapse of Lehman Bros. last September to recovery. Since then, the Treasury has invested more than $200 billion in U.S. banks; as of Sept. 4, the Treasury had received $70.4 billion in repayments. - AP

The Obama administration said a program used to guarantee as much as $3 trillion in money-market mutual-fund assets will end on schedule next week. The program had no direct cost to taxpayers and earned more than $1 billion in fees paid by the mutual-fund industry, the Treasury Department said. It was established at the height of the financial crisis after a large money-market fund "broke the buck," meaning the value of its underlying assets fell below $1 for each investor dollar put in. Investors were exposed to losses after the Primary Reserve Fund conceded that $785 million it had invested in the debt of Lehman Bros. became worthless after the investment bank's bankruptcy in September 2008. - AP

White House economists said the administration's $787 billion recovery program had saved or created more than one million jobs. Private economists called the figure optimistic and cautioned that it was preliminary. The report is certain to draw criticism because the economy has actually lost about 2.5 million jobs since the stimulus was signed in February. President Obama has said the stimulus package would create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. - AP

John J. Mack will step down as CEO of Morgan Stanley in January but will continue as chairman, the investment bank said. He will be succeeded by co-president James P. Gorman. Robert Kidder, lead director of Morgan Stanley, said that Mack told the board 18 months ago he wanted to step back from the CEO role when he turns 65 in November. - AP

Thomas Raffanello, Stanford Financial Group's global security director, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on charges he helped shred documents at the Fort Lauderdale offices of accused Ponzi mastermind R. Allen Stanford. The three-count indictment accuses Raffanello and Bruce Perraud, 42, who was previously indicted on charges of destroying documents after a federal inquiry was under way, with conspiracy, destroying records, and impeding a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Justice Department. - Bloomberg News